


Under the Knife

by shiplizard



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Awkward family bonding, Gen, Mothers and Daughters, Slice of Life, Spoilers, Spoilers for Nightmare Hospital
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 05:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4774724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiplizard/pseuds/shiplizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Connie wants to watch Under the Knife. Doctor Maheswaran can no longer say with certainty that it's completely factually inaccurate. Rules are unbent and awkward parent/child bonding is go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under the Knife

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted more Mother/Daughter Maheswaran time. Until we get more in canon (and this gets Jossed and I am 100% okay with that) here is some awkward family bonding. 
> 
> As per usual, I drafted [ Binz](http://archiveofourown.org/users/binz/pseuds/binz) into beta duty.

"I don't need-- look, I appreciate the thought, but I'm perfectly happy to--"

"It's all right, Doctor Maheswaran. We have plenty of staff."

She drums her fingers on the kitchen counter, her short nails adding a staccato click to the rhythm. "I'm aware of that, too. But I'm on call tonight, and that doesn't need to be changed."

There's a careful silence from the other end of the phone, and then Doctor Gorman says: "If anyone could say that and mean it, it's probably you. But this is a legal indemnity issue. We have to provide leave for everyone who was involved in the incident last week. And you're strongly encouraged to take it. If you don't, and something comes up later--"

"I know." She can't quite stifle the disgusted sound. "Yes, I know."

"Even Stromberg was relieved to have some time away from work. Is it really going to kill you to take a few nights off?"

"No. No, it isn't."

Ugh.

"You have a good night," she says, and doesn't put much effort into sounding like she means it.

She doesn't actually need trauma leave. She doesn't know what she needs. 'A good stiff drink' crosses her mind, but it's mostly sarcastic.

She's been tuning out the music from the living room-- 'Air on the G-String' is one of the songs that's stopped sounding like music to her and become sort of white noise from sheer repetition-- but it stops and she notices its absence.

Yes, come to think of it, a night at home won't kill her. There's 'busy at work' and then there's 'so busy at work you fail to notice major changes in your daughter's health.' She just-- didn't think those would come up until puberty. Another year at least. Bonding is her husband's job, health and scheduling are up to her.

Except apparently the schedule's been changing under her feet.

In her defense, all of her contingency plans and security checks had been for Connie sneaking out of the house to meet friends with cars, not... teleporting lions.

Yes. That’s going to be fun to deal with when she’s a teenager..

There's silence from the living room, then a tentative: "Uh, Mom? Are you still okay with me having a TV break, as we discussed yesterday?"

Priyanka nods her approval at the absence of a misused 'like', even though Connie can't see. Very good for a girl her age.

"Only on days you aren't having sword practice. Tonight is fine."

"It's, um, a rerun of the first season of Under the Knife. I'd like to watch it. Ma'am."

"Absolutely not," she snaps, out of habit, and then re-considers. "...Unless I sit with you and we talk about actual hospital procedure afterwards."

"Really?" The note of confusion in her daughter's voice makes her uncomfortable and a bit irritable for reasons that she can't immediately pin down.

"Yes," she snaps. "And the television watching snack is going to be healthy. I'll bring out some hummus.

"Okay?"

"Rising inflection," she scolds.

"Yes ma'am."

Now resignation. Priyanka feels her lips thinning out. So she's a bit difficult to approach, she understands that. Still, she wishes that Connie could communicate that clearly, not through some sort of emotional inflection.

She opens the refrigerator and stares dully into it for a good thirty seconds before she gives it up; two heaping tablespoons of hummus go onto a plate, and about five servings of the usually carefully-rationed pretzels. She has a weak spot for salt and usually doesn't let the family indulge.

Connie has already moved into the family room and settled into a corner of the couch when she comes out. She puts down the snacks and takes up a vigil on the couch on the other side.

"All right. Let's watch the show."

For the first five minutes or so, her daughter keeps glancing up at her face when some of the not very funny jokes land, and then re-focuses her attention on the television. She's frowning, faintly.

Twenty minutes in, after a set of uninspiring commercials, she says: "I don't think I want to finish this."

Priyanka's first, reflexive reaction is to make her sit through the rest of it. Connie wanted to watch this, she should watch all of it to understand why that was a poor choice, and then they can talk about all the problems with it after she's gotten sick of it.

The alternative is an entirely unscheduled forty minutes in which time they might actually have to talk. To each other.

It's not her daughter's fault. Priyanka's just never been good at talking to her. She organizes things. She doesn’t have to know all the details of young womanhood. Those weren't things she talked about with her mother, and that had worked out just fine.

But there's so much that Connie hasn't told her about.

Probably more than forty minutes' worth.

She picks up the remote and turns the TV off decisively.

"Would you like to talk about why you didn't like it?"

Connie, very commendably, thinks about her answer before she gives it. Her brow furrows and she frowns at the blank television for a long few moments. “I think it would be better if they explored the implications of the exaggerated medical situations they deal with. It would be more effective satire, instead of going from scenario to scenario and trying to be progressively more shocking.”

“I still don’t see it as satire.” Priyanka crosses her arms. “Sensationalism and satire intersect, but some things are just sensationalism.”

“Maybe,” Connie says dubiously. “It used to seem a lot more outrageous. I thought-- it had to be making a bigger point. Now it seems less extreme. Maybe because it’s an earlier season, or...” she trails off.

“I realize you’ve had a difficult experience, but that doesn’t make your show realistic or representative.”

“I know that!”

“Volume,” she snaps, and realizes that her own voice has drifted out of the ‘inside’ range as well. “Civil discussion,” she says, more moderately.

“I’m sorry,” Connie says, crossing an arm loosely over her chest to grip her other arm, turning her face away. Defensive body language. That’s not necessary. That’s not necessary, Priyanka is not as unreasonable as Connie is making her out to be. She's a perfectly reasonable person, and she wishes people would treat her that way instead of this, this exaggeratedly apprehensive display. 

“I’ve had more than one experience. Some of them are normal! There was a guy who had a crush on Garnet, that was… mostly normal! And some of it was fun and nobody got hurt. But then Steven _did_ get hurt. He almost died! And there are other gems out there, ones who still want to invade Earth, and they’ll come after Steven again. I wanted to help. I didn’t want to not be able to do anything. I don’t want to just-- not do anything!”

“You’re a child.”

“I won’t be for long! The gems are thousands of years old. I have to start now. Like the violin, that’s what you said. You have to start early for expertise.”

“The violin is an entirely different--”

“Mom, there are aliens!”

“Don’t interrupt me.” And then. “Yes. I know.”

That there are aliens. Biologically improbable mineral-based aliens. That are the reason that everyone who was on shift last week is now on trauma leave. Alcohol is not a responsible reaction to that. Priyanka is not going to try it.

“I don’t like you being exposed to this,” she admits. “Fighting. ‘Magic.’” For which there is almost certainly a scientific explanation. That nobody has yet. Except potentially Steven’s… caregivers.

“But I can’t just know and not do anything.”

“That’s… a valid point.”

She lets out a long breath, Connie sighing alongside her in accidental stereo.

“The harder it gets, the more important it seems to be able to help,” Connie finally says, after they’ve just been sitting there in the quiet livingroom for a bit. “The other gems aren’t evil. They just don’t care. The fusion experiments that got taken to the hospital probably did need help. They aren’t healthy, they aren’t supposed to be like that. Fusion is supposed to be a choice, but they were surgically attached to each other. That’s why they don’t match. It’s awful!”

“I’m not sure I approve of fusion in general. I mean. That dinner. I respect Steven’s… family unit… but they’re much healthier and more approachable as individuals.”

“Ahhhhhh.” Connie looks slightly nauseous. “Mom, there’s… a lot to tell you. A lot. I don’t want to not tell you, but I don’t even know where to start. I should tell you about Garnet before I tell you about-- um. But does that make-- I think you have to know about Steven’s mom first to understand why that’s so-- and why Pearl-- but _Amethyst_ has more to do with the fusions in a way-- and none of us know where Lion came from at all, but he seems to know his way around Steven’s mom’s things?”

“Oh boy.”

Maybe she should call Doctor Gorman back and ask for trauma leave from home. The alien patients were much easier to deal with rationally than this.

“Yeah.” Connie lets out another breath that sounds like she’s deflating. “Yeah.”

“We should talk about all of that.”

Priyanka looks down at her daughter, sees the small hands clasped tightly in her lap. At least they have not wanting to talk about it at all in common. They can bond over. Not wanting to talk about this.

“But not tonight,” she decides.

“ _Right._ ”

She leans forward and takes a pretzel, dipping it perfunctorily in the hummus as if she’s not just after the salt. “But I think we should try to relax tonight.”

“Relax?” ‘Us?’ is unspoken but perfectly clear in Connie’s entire bearing.

“Yes. We’ll watch something entertaining. We should watch your television show and we can discuss why it’s not working as satire.”

Connie considers the idea, and it makes her brighten. “And you can critique the incidental medical details!”

“Yes. We can critique it. Together. And we’ll talk about your friend and his family later. All right?”

“Sure!”

They give each other a smile of mutual understanding and relief.

“There is one thing I should tell you.”

“Go ahead,” she says, and keeps the trepidation and rising inflection out of her own voice, as one does when one is trying to be taken seriously in the hospital.

“Steven’s mom isn’t around.”

“I inferred that.”

“I’m glad you are.”

Priyanka clears her throat. Right. Well. That’s good. She hadn’t been worried about that. It’s nice to have it confirmed, though.

Connie turns the TV back on, and they relax in the face of other people being awkward and talking.

“ _Doctor! The infection has spread-- to his bones!_ ”

“Connie, I need you to be aware that that is not at all how osteomyelitis presents,” she says, and Connie nods firmly.

“Right?" she agrees, and Priyanka stops herself from correcting the slang. Connie goes on, gesturing with both hands at the screen. "That’s not how the skeletal structure in humans works! It’s not even clever.”

Good. Yes. Bonding. They’re bonding. Connie is very bright, and it may be that Priyanka hasn't made it clear that she respects that. She does understand that Connie isn't being influenced by what she's seeing or falling into lazy thinking. 

...she’s just fighting aliens with swords.

In the face of that, bad television seems a lot less objectionable.

“I’m very proud of you, Connie,” she says. And then: “And that is not how you treat osteomyelitis either!”

“Ewww,” Connie agrees.

“...Is there another episode after this? We could talk more about why it’s problematic. I could tell you about some of the real emergencies I've seen.”

Connie looks surprised; that's irritating. But she looks pleased and that's-- 

It's nice. Connie hasn't looked happy around her in several years. 

“I’d like that, Mom. I’d like that a lot.”


End file.
